1. Field
The disclosure may relate to mesh networks. More particularly, the disclosure may relate to a method and apparatus for admission control of data in a mesh network.
2. Background
In recent years, there has been an increase in demand for widespread access to high speed data services. The telecommunication industry has responded to the increase in demand by offering a variety of wireless products and services. In an effort to make these products and services interoperable, the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has promulgated a set of wireless local area network (WLAN) standards, e.g., IEEE 802.11. The products and services that conform to these standards are frequently networked in a wireless point to multipoint configuration. In one configuration, individual wireless devices (e.g., stations) may communicate directly with an Internet access point, with each of the wireless devices sharing the available bandwidth.
Another configuration may be a mesh network. A mesh network may be a distributed network having multiple wireless nodes. Each node may act as a repeater capable of receiving traffic, transmit or transport streams (TSs) and relaying the TSs to a next node. A TS may proceed from an origination node to a destination node by “hopping” from node to node. TS routing algorithms may insure that TSs are routed efficiently from their origination node to their destination node. TS routing algorithms may dynamically adapt to changes in the mesh network and may enable the mesh network to be more efficient and resilient. For example, in the event a node is too busy to handle the TS or a node has dropped out of the mesh network, the TS routing algorithm may route the TS to the destination node through other nodes in the network.
Mesh networks may frequently include a hierarchy of nodes with different operating characteristics. In some mesh network architectures, nodes at the bottom of the hierarchy may include stations. Stations may include individual wireless devices such as a laptop computer or a personal digital assistant, among many others. Mesh points may include nodes that may be considered to be a layer above the stations. Mesh points may also form a wireless backbone. Mesh points may be capable of receiving TSs from, and transmitting TSs to, other mesh points. Mesh access points (MAPs), a special type of mesh point, may provide a gateway or connection path between stations and mesh points. Mesh access points may allow TSs to “hop” between a station and a mesh point. Mesh portals, another special type of mesh point, may provide a gateway for devices that conform to different wireless standards, e.g., 802.11(a/b/g/n). Mesh portals may allow TSs from non-mesh networks to enter into, and depart from, a mesh network.
Communication devices complying with 802.11(s) may have different Quality of Service (QoS) requirements for the TSs. QoS may include a number of parameters, such as the number of dropped packets, packet delay times, packet jitters, number of out of order delivery of packets, and number of packets received in error, among many others. Using these parameters, one can see that for different communication devices, users and applications may need different QoSs. For example, Internet telephony may need a QoS with a small packet delay time, and a small packet jitter to allow a two-way conversation to be intelligible. A streaming video lecture may also need a small packet jitter to provide presentable video images, and a coherent one-way audio track, but a large packet delay might be acceptable. QoS requirements may begin to be even more critical and complex as the diversity of communication devices, users and applications increase. For example, a real time interactive gaming experience between two people in two different geographic regions may have very complex and stringent QoS requirements.
Large scale deployment of wireless devices in mesh networks may pose challenges for network design, including admission control of TSs with diverse QoS requirements and priorities, among many others.